Minolta DiMAGE S404 Review

Timings & File Sizes

Overall the S404 was a quick camera. As with most extending
lens cameras the S404's slowest action is power on or off. The S404's
focus and lag speeds are all very respectable and it's shot to shot time
is very impressive once you get used to waiting for the AF bracket to
re-appear BEFORE pressing the shutter release (otherwise the camera "locks").
A good buffer implementation means that you can get back to shooting while
in the background your last image is still being written to the CF card.

Timing Notes: All times calculated as an average
of three operations. A Viking 256 MB Compact Flash card was used for timings.
Unless otherwise stated all timings were made on a 2272 x 1704 FINE JPEG
image (approx. 1.6 MB per image).

Action

Details

Time
taken
(seconds)

Notes

Power: Off to Record

Lens always
defaults to wide

5.1

Lens takes 1.2 secs
*1

Power: Off to Play

4.8

Image is displayed

Power: Record to
Off

Lens at
wide angle

4.1

Lens retract *2

Power: Play to
Off

Lens at
wide angle

4.2

Lens retract *2

Mode: Record to
Play

1.6

Image is displayed

Mode: Play to
Record

1.6

Play: Magnify

To x2.0

3.1

*3

Play: Browse delay

Delay
between images

~ 0

Virtually zero

Rec: Thumbnail view

3 x 3
thumbnails

0.7

Auto Focus LAG

Wide focus
mode

0.9 - 1.7

Average - Fast *4

Auto Focus LAG

Selected
AF area mode

0.8 - 1.7

Fast *4

Shutter Release LAG

0.1

Fast

Total LAG

1.0 - 2.0

Average

Off to Shot Taken

5.8

Average to Fast

Shot to Shot

2272 x
1704 JPEG FINE

1.8

Very Fast *5

*1

There is a 1.5
second delay between turning the power dial to 'ON' and the lens beginning
its extension. This delay appears to be dependant on the CF card used.

*2

Power off takes
5.2 seconds if lens is at telephoto position.

*3

Subsequent zoom
levels take approximately half a second each.

*4

At either wide
angle or telephoto with sufficent light. If auto focus can't lock
it may take up to a second longer before the red dot appears.

Continuous drive mode

The table below shows the results of our continuous shooting test, indicating
the actual frame rate along with maximum number of frames at a selection
of image resolution / quality settings and how long you would have to
wait after taking the maximum number of frames before you could take the
next shot. A Viking 256 MB Compact Flash card was used for this test.

Image Type

Frames per sec

Max no. of frames

Wait before
next shot *1

2272 x 1704 FINE

1.4 fps

9

3 sec

2272 x 1704 STANDARD

1.3 fps

18

3 sec

1600 x 1200 STANDARD

1.2 fps

60

3 sec

1280 x 960 STANDARD

1.2 fps

-

-

640 x 480 STANDARD

1.2 fps

-

-

*1

You can take a
frame as soon as there is space in the cameras internal buffer (writing
continues "in the background").

The S404 has probably one of the best buffer use implementations I've
seen on any consumer digital camera, once an image has been pushed into
the camera's buffer (as soon as the shot is taken) the camera begins writing
to the CF card. The write process does not hinder the operation of the
camera in any way. In continuous shooting mode the camera will shoot as
long as there is space in the buffer, with a good CF card and small enough
image file sizes (1280 x 960 STANDARD or lower) you can shoot continuously
until the CF card is full. Overall although the continuous shooting speed
isn't particularly fast the availability and size of the cameras buffer
means that you can shoot in continuous mode almost without restrictions.

Interesting that the same observation made of the S304 is true on the
S404, that for smaller image sizes the actual shooting speed (fps) is
slower for smaller files (probably because smaller files have to be "downsampled"
from the 2272 x 1704 image).

File Flush / Display Timing

Timings shown below are the time taken for the camera
to process and "flush" the image out to the Compact Flash card,
the timer was started as soon as the shutter release was pressed (shutter
click was heard) and stopped when activity indicator LED beside the storage
compartment went out. This means the timings also include the cameras
processing time and as such are more representative of the actual time
to "complete the task". A Viking 256 MB Compact Flash card was
used for this test.

Image Type

Time
to store
(seconds)*1

Time
to
magnify
(seconds) *3

Approx.
File size *4

Approx.
images
on a 256 MB
Compact Flash card

2272 x 1704

S.FINE TIFF
*2

23.3

-

11,389
KB

21

2272 x 1704

FINE

5.8

3.1

~1,700
KB

123

2272 x 1704

STANDARD

4.8

2.1

~850
KB

207

2272 x 1704

ECONOMY

4.1

1.9

~550
KB

331

1600 x 1200

FINE

4.6

1.8

~880
KB

234

1280 x 960

FINE

4.2

1.5

~650
KB

346

640 x 480

FINE

3.5

0.9

~230
KB

779

*1

Instant playback
disabled. With instant playback enabled CF writing only starts once
the playback image has been displayed, thus either 2 or 10 seconds
after the image has been taken and processed.

*2

Screen is blank
and camera is inoperative during writing period.

*3

The S404 displays
all images almost instantly in 'browse' mode (pressing the 4-way controller
left or right to view images), the only delay (actually reading the
image) occurs if you press the magnify button. You can not magnify
TIFF images.

*4

With
JPEG it's difficult to predict the exact size of an image file because
it will vary a fair amount depending on the content of the image (especially
the amount of detail captured). For example, take a photograph of
a fairly empty wall and you'll get a small JPEG, take a photograph
of a bush with a lot of detail and you'll get a larger image. File
sizes here are closer to the later, the larger size of file you should
expect.

Battery life

We ran the camera through our new battery life test.
This test is designed to be fair and comparative to each camera and battery
type:

Take 4 shots without flash

Wait 2 minutes (50% of the time powering the camera off)

Take 1 shot with flash

Wait 1 minute

Repeat

All batteries had been fully discharged and recharged before the test
and all cameras were reset to their factory default settings. Here are
the results:

CameraProsumer / SLR-Like

Battery

Power

Battery
life

Number
of shots

Minolta DiMAGE 7

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

1 hr 14 mins

125

Minolta DiMAGE 5

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

1 hr 56 mins

195

Nikon Coolpix 5700

EN-EL1

4.8 Wh

2 hr 08 mins

215

Canon PowerShot S40

NB-2L

3.9 Wh

2 hr 13 mins

225

Minolta DiMAGE S304

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

2 hr 18 mins

235

Canon PowerShot S45

NB-2L

3.9 Wh

2 hr 28 mins

240

Nikon Coolpix 4500

EN-EL1

4.8 Wh

2 hr 27 mins

250

Fujifilm FinePix 6900Z

NP-80

4.1 Wh

2 hr 29 mins

250

Nikon Coolpix 990

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

2 hr 30 mins

255

Nikon Coolpix 995

EN-EL1

4.8 Wh

2 hr 30 mins

255

Nikon Coolpix 5000

EN-EL1

4.8 Wh

2 hr 32 mins

260

Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

2 hr 33 mins

260

Canon PowerShot Pro1

BP-511A

10.2 Wh

2 hr 36 mins

265

Canon PowerShot S50

NB-2L

3.9 Wh

2 hr 39 mins

270

Minolta DiMAGE S404

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

2 hr 39 mins

270

Sony DSC-V1

NP-FC11

2.8 Wh

2 hr 39 mins

270

Olympus C-7000 Zoom

LI-12B

4.5 Wh

2 hr 44 mins

280

Nikon Coolpix 8700

EN-EL1

5.0 Wh

2 hr 45 mins

280

Minolta DiMAGE 7i

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

2 hr 46 mins

270

Olympus E-20

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

2 hr 48 mins

285

Canon PowerShot G1

BP-511

8.1 Wh

3 hr 00 mins

300

Nikon Coolpix 5400

EN-EL1

4.8 Wh

3 hr 06 mins

315

HP Photosmart 850

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

3 hr 12 mins

325

Sony DSC-S75

NP-FM50

8.6 Wh

3 hr 15 mins

330

Nikon Coolpix 8800

EN-EL7

8.1 Wh

3 hr 27 mins

350

Fujifilm FinePix S602Z

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

3 hr 29 mins

350

Canon PowerShot G2

BP-511

8.1 Wh

3 hr 32 mins

355

Casio QV-4000

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

3 hr 38 mins

365

Olympus C-5050 Zoom

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

3 hr 48 mins

380

Casio EXILIM EX-P700

NP-40

4.5 Wh

3 hr 48 mins

385

Sony DSC-S85

NP-FM50

8.6 Wh

3 hr 50 mins

400

Sony DSC-F717

NP-FM50

8.6 Wh

4 hr 02 mins

405

Pentax Optio 750Z

D-LI7

6.6 Wh

4 hr 03 mins

415

Sony DSC-V3

NP-FR1

4.4 Wh

4 hr 05 mins

415

Nikon Coolpix 8400

EN-EL7

8.1 Wh

4 hr 09 mins

420

Sony DSC-F707

NP-FM50

8.6 Wh

4 hr 20 mins

440

Fujifilm S7000 Zoom

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

4 hr 23 mins

445

Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2

NP-400

11.1 Wh

4 hr 26 mins

450

Canon PowerShot G3

BP-511

8.1 Wh

4 hr 32 mins

455

Canon PowerShot G5

BP-511

8.1 Wh

4 hr 33 mins

460

Pentax Optio 550

D-LI7

6.6 Wh

4 hr 36 mins

465

Minolta DiMAGE A1

NP-400

11.1 Wh

5 hr 02 mins

515

Leica Digilux 2

BP-DC1-E

10.1 Wh

5 hr 05 mins

515

Sony DSC-F828

NP-FM50

8.6 Wh

5 hr 28 mins

540

Fujifilm FinePix S5000

4 x AA NiMH 1600 mAh (GP)

7.7 Wh

5 hr 31 mins

555

Canon PowerShot G6

BP-511A

10.3 Wh

5 hr 38 mins

570

Olympus C-8080 WZ

BLM-1

10.8 Wh

5 hr 52 mins

595

Other test notes:

 LCD monitor is left on during
the battery test
 The camera is powered off half of the time and left on half
of the time (switch every 10 iterations)
 There are now higher capacity AA NiMH batteries available,
however in the interests of fair
comparison we will continue to use our 1600 mAh
test set

The S404 did noticably better than its older version the S304, perhaps
Minolta have tweaked the firmware or other internal components to improve
battery life. Overall the camera showed a respectable two and a half hours
on a fairly standard set of 1600 mAh NiMH AA batteries.

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